Sept. 3, 2016
BISHOP, Ga. – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their seasons with solid starts on Saturday morning with both teams going 1-1 in the dual meet against Kennesaw State and Georgia. The women topped Kennesaw State, 20-43 and fell to Georgia, 18-39. The men’s squad took Kennesaw State by a score of 15-50 and fell to Georgia, 22-33.
“It was great to see the men and women race this morning and overall I was pleased with the efforts,” said Georgia Tech cross country head coach Alan Drosky. “While we were hoping for better results overall, we came up short against two strong Georgia squads and were able to come away with wins against two upcoming Kennesaw State teams. The strength of both our teams is our depth and I think we saw that today. But we just didn’t have an answer for the strength Georgia had up front.”
On the women’s side, Tech was led by sophomore Mary Prouty, who finished sixth overall with a personal-best 5k time of 18:24.50. Also having a strong finish for the Yellow Jackets was freshman Mary Claire Solomon, who finished seventh overall in her collegiate debut (18:28.47).
“The women were all very aggressive early and later in the season, we’ll be able to hold onto that pace longer,” said Drosky. “Mary [Prouty] ran a strong second half of the race, Mary Claire [Solomon] was tough and hung on gamely, and Amy [Ruiz] really came into her own as a cross country runner today.”
For the men, junior Nahom Solomon captured a second-place finish overall for the Yellow Jackets with a time of 25:15.13. Also cracking the top ten on the men’s side was sophomore Mitchell Sanders, coming in with a sixth-place finish (25:45.41), sophomore Matt McBrien with a seventh-place finish (26:15.07), graduate student Jack Bordoni with a tie for eighth place (26:16.52) and junior Tanner Shaw claiming the No. 10 spot (26:25.56).
“For the men, Nahom [Solomon] was outstanding, going for the win but getting passed at the end,” said Drosky of his men’s squad. “Mitchell [Sanders] moved up very well throughout the race and Jack [Bordoni] was aggressive early.
“Both teams showed some good things we can really build on as we prepare for our next competition.”
Both squads will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 24 for the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn.
